Netflix confirmed plans to allocate $2.5 billion toward Korean content to showcase the potential of Asian productions to global viewers.
“When a show is loved by a Korean audience, it has a very, very high likelihood of being loved by audiences... around the world,” Netflix’s Vice President of Korean content, Don Kang, said to CNBC.
According to Dang, a longtime Korean content distributor, the platform will carry out an investment in various TV series, films and nonfiction shows over the course of the next four years. Starting this year, it will double its load of nonfiction show productions from four to a minimum of eight as it hopes to fulfill the Korean audience’s demand for variety shows.
To further support the roll-out, the global streamer is also investing in localization through subtitles and dubbing to make viewing comfortable for viewers in any territory.
“Back then it was mostly romantic comedies” that received traction, he said. Distribution was limited to nearby countries like Japan and other Southeast Asian nations due to language and cultural differences in other regions, he added.
The slate includes reality show, “Physical 100,” which was released earlier this year, and features romance, drama, social commentary, apocalyptic and nonfiction titles. The list is also led by “Inferno,” which also made the global top ten list. “Physical 100” remained at the top of the platform’s weekly viewership for non-English TV shows for two consecutive weeks last year.
“I think that was really the first nonfiction show to have global viewing, getting people really excited,” he said. Korean competition or nonfiction shows don’t typically travel very far outside Korea and the Asia-Pacific region, but Kang said the success of “Physical 100″ is a “really positive sign.”
“You can’t underestimate the... diverse tastes that people have all around the world,” Kang said, citing the thriller series “Squid Game” as an example. Netflix had considered changing its title to something with more context for international viewers, but ultimately kept its original “catchy title that provokes curiosity,” Kang said.